Instability in Bangladesh, like this scene last year, made the US intel community’s list of top threats. (AFP photo via Getty Images)
ESSAY: James Clapper has a list. It’s a threat list. The DNI admits it’s “long.” In a period where military services and national security agencies are angling to justify their large budgets, and defense firms are looking for new revenue streams, Clapper’s list practically smells like cash.
President Barack Obama told a joint session of Congress on Tuesday evening that he intends to move the nation “off a permanent war footing.” About 12 hours later, his director of national intelligence brought that goal into question by ticking off a seemingly endless list of threats the United States is facing, could face, is indirectly facing, should keep an eye on, could feel the third- or fourth-order effects from, or might have to confront only if an equally long list of things go very, very wrong.
But, hey, why not go big — and scary — when testifying in a very public setting before the Senate Intelligence Committee?! Measured? Bite your tongue. This is still — despite what some pesky analysts and journalists have written — the post-9/11 era, where if you can conceive it, it’s a threat.
“Looking back over my more than half a century in intelligence, I have not experienced a time when we have been beset by more crises and threats around the globe,” Clapper told the panel. “My list is long.”
I’ll say. Clapper did not appear to take a massive breath before launching into his list, which was impressive.
“It includes the scourge and diversification of terrorism loosely connected and now globally dispersed, to include here at home, as exemplified by the Boston Marathon bombing; the sectarian war in Syria, its attraction as a growing center of radical extremism, and the potential threat this poses to the homeland; the spillover of conflict into neighboring Lebanon and Iraq; the destabilizing flood of refugees in Jordan and Turkey and Lebanon,” Clapper said.
Here, one might question if… Oh, wait, Clapper wasn’t finished.
“The implications of the drawdown in Afghanistan; the deteriorating internal security posture in Iraq; the growth of foreign cyber capabilities; the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; aggressive nation-state intelligence efforts against us,” the DNI continued.
Here, one might note US officials haven’t exactly proven the 13-year-old claim about the proliferation of WMDs, especially those kinds of weapons landing in the hands of “terrorists.” After all, wait, Clapper’s still going.
“An assertive Russia, a competitive China,” he said
Does the US really see its banker as national-security risk that warrants being grouped with the likes of al-Qaida in a public “threat list?” Is that strategically wise? Who knows — the DNI is still threat-listing.
“A dangerous, unpredictable North Korea, a challenging Iran, lingering ethnic divisions in the Balkans, perpetual conflict and extremism in Africa; violent political struggles in, among others, the Ukraine, Burma, Thailand and Bangladesh; the specter of mass atrocities,” he said.
Wait, did he say Bangladesh?! That’s…oh, he’s got more.
“The increasing stress of burgeoning populations; the urgent demands for energy, water and food; the increasing sophistication of transnational crime; the tragedy and magnitude of human trafficking; the insidious rot of inventive synthetic drugs; the potential for pandemic disease occasioned by the growth of drug-resistant bacteria,” Clapper concluded.
Scared yet?
“I could go on with this litany,” Clapper deadpanned.
I’m sure you could, sir. And that would be great for national security agencies, the armed services, and defense firms. They’re a lot like funeral directors — the worse things get, the more relevant they are and the more business picks up.
Still, there was very little racking and stacking of those “threats” in Clapper’s spoken statement. And the lack of context was rather stunning.
When a threat list is so long, when everything conceivable seemingly ranks as a top threat, a contrarian might wonder if anything is as a big of a threat as it’s being portrayed.
